Team GB v the world: how British efforts this season compare with national and world records

Britain’s quickest 100m sprinter in 2012, Adam Gemili, already has the ninth
fastest time for a Briton ever, and although a medal in London could prove
to be out of reach, he looks set one day to break Christie’s two-decade-old
national mark.

Of the 47 Olympic disciplines (24 for men, 23 for women) in athletics, just two world records are currently held by Britons - Jonathan Edwards in the men’s triple jump and Paula Radcliffe in the women’s marathon. (correct as of 4 July 2012)

We have selected a sample of events and the graph above compares world records against the best British time in that event and the best British time this year in the event.

In the sample, many British best times fall short of world record times or distances - and also appear some way adrift of national records.

For all their success at Beijing 2008, Great Britain picked up only four athletics medals - a gold, two silver and a bronze - one below the stated target. This time around, a maximum of eight medals is expected in track and field, and, apart from a select few, including world champions Mo Farah and Dai Greene and perennial favourite Jessica Ennis, there are modest expectations of glory.

Take the marathon. Radcliffe, whose 2003 world record run of 2.15.25 is some 12 minutes quicker than Claire Hallissey, whose 2.27.44 is the fastest record by a Briton this year.

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Britain's top male marathon runner this year, Lee Merrien, recorded a time of 2.13.41 at the London Marathon in April. That time, a personal best, would have put him in 16th place in Beijing, and is six minutes shy of Steve Jones' British record and 10 minutes adrift of Kenyan Patrick Makau Musyoki's world record of 2.03.38.

Like Jones' record, which dates back to 1985, the majority of British track and field records were set last century. Among them Edwards’ monster leap of 18.29 metres at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Linford Christie’s 100 metres time of 9.87 seconds, which won him the 1993 World Championship title, is by some way the best time recorded by a British athlete in the event.

It was within a whisker of the then-world record when it was set, but today's world record - Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds - easily beats all British times. Adam Gemili has recorded the quickest time by a Briton in 2012, but his mark of 10.08 seconds is 0.21 seconds slower than Christie's best time and a full half a second more than Bolt.

In the women's version, the difference is even more stark - Abi Oyepitan's 2012 British best of 11.21 seconds is more than six tenths of a second slower than Florence Griffith Joyner's world record.

But FloJo's1988 record is so remarkable it is unlikely to be broken for the foreseeable future - and Oyepitan is only 0.16 seconds away from Montell Douglas' national record of 11.05 seconds, set in 2008.

However, although the latest batch of athletes aren't necessarily closing in on records, they might yet grab medals at London 2012.

Edwards' triple jump was so exceptional that Phillips Idowu, Britain’s triple jumper in 2012, is still in with a chance of gold despite his best effort this year being nearly a metre short of the world record.

In the women's event, Yamilé Aldama's best British time this year is half a metre short of Ashia Hansen's 1997 national record of 15.15 metres - in turn 35 centimetres short of the world record - but despite the difference, Aldama is thought to be a medal contender.

In a host of events, such as javelin, Britain’s athletes avoid any weight of expectation. Steve Backley, trumped by old rival and world record holder Jan Zelezny at Sydney 2000 after holding the Olympic record for just 10 minutes - still holds the British record from 20 years ago.

No other Brit has got within five metres of Backley’s mark for a decade and a half - and the only British male in this year's event, Mervyn Luckwell, has a personal best of 83.52m, and a season best of 82.15m.

But while Colin Jackson's 18-year-old 110m hurdles record is still significantly quicker than Lawrence Clarke's season best of 13.33 seconds, the youngster - still only 22 years old - has shaved a quarter of a second off his best time from 2011.

And Clarke, like Gemili, has youth on his side as he seeks to close in on those national and world records.